Rafa Benitez will be back at work at Newcastle United’s training ground on Tuesday morning – ready to plot a path to victory against Swansea City on Sunday.

United had a day off today, the club’s staff and players having been given a long weekend to coincide with the international break. But Benitez is due to be back at his desk on Tuesday morning with what he regards as a revised remit to try and help United to squeeze every point from their Premier League fixtures between now and January 1, which is the first point that he can – in theory – change a squad that he felt didn’t have the numbers, depth or quality to fulfil his original goal of challenging for top ten.

While Benitez ’s future was one of the major talking points to come out of Thursday’s deadline day, the word from the Spaniard’s camp is that will be consigned to the past when the players return for the duty in the morning.

Instead the message is to focus on three winnable games – starting at Swansea, who have been fired up by their own smart transfer business in the final days of the window, before games against Stoke and Brighton.

Newcastle United boss Rafa Benitez (Image: Newcastle United)

The first two of these teams made late additions that changed the mood surrounding both clubs – something that Benitez wanted to happen at Newcastle. But the Spaniard is aware of the bubbling ill will and will seek to try and calm it on Friday, when he hosts his press call for the Swans game at 1.30pm.

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And there is good news on the injury front with Florian Lejeune set to return to full training and likely to be in contention for the Liberty Stadium trip. That would mean Benitez could – in theory – shift Ciaran Clark to left-back in place of Chancel Mbemba , who played well in that role but is not as natural there as the Ireland man.

There’s also the issue of Jonjo Shelvey’s return from suspension. Benitez is likely to make him wait for his return with Mikel Merino posting such a promising home debut at Swansea.

Benitez will also assess Dwight Gayle’s mood and fitness but the number nine is likely to start on the bench with Joselu, who made a scoring start in black and white, ready to spearhead United’s attack at Swansea.

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It all makes for a strange mood at Newcastle. Benitez is now the 5/2 favourite to take over at West Ham but there is no vacancy and the Spaniard – despite the links – has made no overtures towards the club. West Ham made a few indirect enquiries about Benitez’s position last season when Slaven Bilic was in trouble but talk of the manager being “open to offers” does not tally with what his camp insist is 100% commitment to the job in hand until he hears of anything concrete to change that.

Fans will no doubt welcome the return of Premier League football this week. The job of re-unifying the club should not be difficult as long as Benitez stays in place as the figurehead and talisman.